It is no secret that Samsung has always been eager to show up Apple whenever the opportunity arises. Apple’s continued taunts of being copied haven’t helped the rivalry cool down. But while some healthy competition is good for brands, pushing them to up their game, Samsung may have done more harm than good with the Note 7.

Showing Up The Big Boys

The story starts with the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus. By all accounts, it is probably sucky. Unlike many other evolutionary stages of the device, not much stands out this time. Their entire launch is based around AirPods, the wireless headphones that have been universally scoffed at since Apple announced they were removing the headphone jack.

So naturally, Samsung saw a chance to screw with the competition and come out on top.

They had been designing the Galaxy Note 7 for some time, and the feature list was going to be long. The new design would be sleeker with an ultra high def screen with protections against scratches and cracks (something Apple just can’t wrap their head around). It was going to be awesome.

And it was, at first.

The Note 7 Fiasco

When the Note 7 was first sent out, well ahead of the deadline thanks to insane pressure from Samsung to their manufacturers, it was well received. The graphics were gorgeous, performance was high, and everything from the retina scan to the super battery was just plain cool.

Everyone knows where this is going.

Within a couple of uses people were noticing an overheating problem…the problem being that the phones literally caught fire. Dozens of consumers were burned, others experienced property damage, and everyone was shocked and angry.

Samsung sent a message out from Seoul apologizing and promising they would figure out what was happening. Until then, people were advised to turn off their phones. Shortly after, CEO DJ Koh held a press conference personally promising new phones to every single customer who bought one.

But shortly after, they released a software patch for the battery. So people could turn on their phones again? They wouldn’t be getting replacements? It still isn’t clear.

The point of this story is a simple one: Samsung wanted to screw Apple. They had a cool gadget coming, but it wasn’t ready. They decided to launch it anyway, in order to get ahead of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.

Now, while Apple’s newest product frankly sucks, Samsung’s will burn off your face. There has to be a lesson in their somewhere.